overyourhead - some irreverent musings by a gay London guy - crawling though technology, love and life... so you don't have to.

Quote Of The Day

"Victory goes to the player who makes the next-to-last mistake - Chessmaster Savielly Grigorievitch Tartakower (1887-1956)"

Thursday, June 01, 2006

The Tiger Lillies...

Last night Guy, Stuart and I went to see that veteran avant-garde London vaudeville trio the Tiger Lillies at the Soho Theatre. And what a great show it was.

Stand out of the trio was of course the white-paint faced, bowler hatted and ear-splitting falsetto voiced singer Martyn Jacques. He was a charismatic focus. But equally powerful were the saw twanging and drumming of the two Adrians - Stout and Huge (not their real names, surely).

Indeed it was the trio's consummate musicianship coupled with their own particular style of Brechtian cabaret that meant the night was as entertaining musically as it was shocking for it's content. You see the Tiger Lillies aren't exactly known for their soft choices of subject matter.

Every last damned taboo was tackled in song from paedophilia, cancer, mental illness through to rape, disease and disability. We sat open mouthed and then laughed and laughed and laughed.

We were treated to a rousing little ditty about cancer - called , unsurprisingly Cancer. A song about Aunty Mabel ("You could take her for a spin, leave her money in her disabled tin"). And songs like I’m Just a Whore, Kick a Baby Down the Stairs and the glorious Mummy ("Mummy. My mummy. My mummy’s in a mental home...").

There were moments of genuine emotion too such as My Tin Shack. Though even this was tinged with sadness. It was story about death.

They played for just over an hour but the time seemed to fly by even faster. But we left happy - with the refrain of many a tragic song ringing in our ears: "I’m a lonely schizophrenic, I feel I’ve been abused..." And the crowd displeasing "I killed my mother, I drank her blood. I killed my mother, up above. I raped my mother..." (some people walked out after this one!)